Greetings from Ann Arbor

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dirt
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:04 am

Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by dirt »

Hi ERE folks,

Finally getting around to writing my first post after a couple months of lurking.

Currently at age 24, I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with my partner who studies conservation ecology for her master’s degree at the University of Michigan. I work as a data analyst for a professor of pharmacy (which I knew nothing about coming into this job) but in September I will start doing data analysis for a professor studying agriculture at a geo-spatial scale, while continuing to consult my current employer.

I had the privilege to attend a small liberal arts college for free, because my dad used to teach physics at an associated college. (Now that I graduated school, he took early retirement from the college and works as an urban arborist.) This school has a pretty unique situation with lots of students who actually care about learning, which draws in interesting professors who actually care about teaching. I started school super focused on computer science, and eventually ended up double majoring in environmental studies as well.

In one of my favorite classes of my education, one of the best professors at the school assigned us to read a few chapters out of Your Money or Your Life, and explained the concept of early retirement. By this point, I had already thought of the idea of using my computer science degree and frugal lifestyle to make enough money to support a permaculture farm and/or homestead community until the system could produce enough on its own, but now I had more inspiration. This eventually led me to read the ERE book, and now this forum gives me further inspiration and commitment.
Moving to and living in Ann Arbor took me by financial surprise, as the small town in rural Illinois I lived in for college had an incredibly low cost of living (but unfortunate lack of tech jobs.) We crammed 5 or 6 people in a small, dilapidated house so close to the railroad tracks that it shook every hour or so when trains went by, but we each only had to pay $140 a month for rent, and we got along quite well with our landlord.

Now my partner and I live in an apartment, splitting $1150 for rent, but in September we will move into a house with friends so the two of us will split $900 instead. We live downtown, so we only own one car between us, which my partner currently uses to commute to Detroit for an urban farming internship. We recently planned a budget that has us each living off about $15,000 per year, allowing me to save more than half my income, and allowing her to use about half her income to pay off student loan debts, assuming she continues to get a paid research assistant-ship for her current degree. I could surely make more money if I left academia for industry, but I took the first job I could get when we moved, and now I look forward to this agriculture data analysis job because I will get to research questions that I find interesting, and it will help me learn more about farming as an industry.

I don’t plan to obtain complete financial independence, but instead hope to fund the start of a permaculture farm operation based of Mark Shepard’s book “Restoration Agriculture”. Since it takes a while for fruit and nut trees to return a profit, I would like to have the upfront capital to buy the land without/minimizing loans, and live a frugal, somewhat homesteading lifestyle that I can support with part time work I find enjoyable.
Reading ERE has really helped me on my path to frugality, and more importantly to systems thinking. This forum looks like a great community full of interesting people; I hope to continue to learn a lot from it!

Cheers,
dirt

Dragline
Posts: 4436
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by Dragline »

Welcome in from the shadows.

You should look up 7wannabe5 -- she's in your neck of the woods and already grows all sorts of things in an urban environment.

wolf
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Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by wolf »

Welcome to the ERE Forum. Great that you have written your first post.

dirt
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:04 am

Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by dirt »

Thanks for the welcomes and your suggestion!

jacob
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Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by jacob »

dirt wrote:
Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:20 pm
In one of my favorite classes of my education, one of the best professors at the school assigned us to read a few chapters out of Your Money or Your Life, and explained the concept of early retirement.
I was recently contacted by a TA from one of the Ivy Leagues for a bulk buy of the ERE book to hand out to the students. It's nice that a few academics are teaching real life/applied/critical thinking that applies to most people and not just "theoretical" applications.

Also see: https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.co ... 227#p71227

The_Bowme
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:59 pm

Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by The_Bowme »

I went to school there back in 2010. My sister lives in Ypsi now, commutes to Detroit, and has a BF getting his master's in some environmental related field. A bit reminiscent of your situation. Sounds like their rent is fairly cheap in Ypsi, and I always heard positive things about the community there when I was at Michigan.

Don't know if these deals still exist, but some of my cheaper joys in A2 were cheap beer and free pool at the Blind Pig on Mondays, and half off happy hours at Arbor Brewing Company. Also, bean and cheese burritos at Big Ten Burritos. Also, the Arboretum was an excellent free regular excursion, but I'm sure you're aware.

dirt
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:04 am

Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by dirt »

@jacob

Good to hear more educational institutions have started to teach ERE, sky's lecture sounds like a great way to get students interested quickly. Any idea what the rest of this ivy league course discusses?

The course I referred to broadly covered alternatives to consumerism, and included exercises where we had to keep track of every dollar we spent for a week, and where we had to keep track of every advertisement we saw for a week. Unfortunately, since the professor practices what he preaches, he only teaches half time and no longer has room for this course in his schedule.


@The_Bowme
I think we would have done better living in Ypsi, as I have also heard that housing costs so much less, and it feels like a real community. My partner volunteers at Growing Hope, an urban farm in Ypsi, and she really likes it. I do like that we can easily walk to the university from where we live in Ann Arbor, but I would also enjoy not living in a college town for once in my life. What did you study here? Is your sister's BF also getting his master's at Umich? If so, it seems likely that he studies where my partner does and where I will soon work, at the School of Natural Resources (which will soon change its name to the School of Environment and Sustainability, seemingly an effort to incorporate more meaningless buzzwords into the name.)

I just googled the Blind Pig and it sounds like they will shut down soon, so I'll have to check it out before they do. It feels funny to me how close I live to downtown, yet how little I do there because everything costs money. I really like the Arboretum, as well as a few other natural areas in town.

jacob
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Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by jacob »

@dirt - This was as a graduation present. I don't want to out the person by giving course details.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Hi dirt and welcome!

My wife and I just relocated from the San Francisco Bay area to the Ann Arbor area (renting in Saline). I too found the cost of living higher than expected although we are renting a house with a backyard for our kid and a spare bedroom for my home office (I work from home). So far, life is good. If we decide to stay long term, I hope to get 5+ acres of land outside of Ann Arbor to live on and for subsistence farming. The soil here seems to be sandy or have high clay content so I need to research that more.

The_Bowme
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:59 pm

Re: Greetings from Ann Arbor

Post by The_Bowme »

dirt wrote:
Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:22 am

@The_Bowme
I think we would have done better living in Ypsi, as I have also heard that housing costs so much less, and it feels like a real community. My partner volunteers at Growing Hope, an urban farm in Ypsi, and she really likes it. I do like that we can easily walk to the university from where we live in Ann Arbor, but I would also enjoy not living in a college town for once in my life. What did you study here? Is your sister's BF also getting his master's at Umich? If so, it seems likely that he studies where my partner does and where I will soon work, at the School of Natural Resources (which will soon change its name to the School of Environment and Sustainability, seemingly an effort to incorporate more meaningless buzzwords into the name.)

I just googled the Blind Pig and it sounds like they will shut down soon, so I'll have to check it out before they do. It feels funny to me how close I live to downtown, yet how little I do there because everything costs money. I really like the Arboretum, as well as a few other natural areas in town.
Bummer about the Blind Pig. It's sad to watch as college towns become resort communities rather than the grungy affairs they used to be. Ann Arbor was losing used book stores while I was there. In a college town!

I studied economics and philosophy as an undergrad. Great experience overall, although I wasn't too well prepared for the working world. My sister's BF is in the same school, studying Environmental Informatics to keep the buzz words flying. His name is Dan if you happen to run into him.

I guess one other cool thing was you can see quite good classical, jazz, and world music through the school. A student IDs can get respectable discounts. World famous performers would still be expensive, but the next levels down can be very cheap, or even free.

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